Angry Management: Review Haiku

Might be nice stories
without the heavy thwacking
of moral lessons.

Angry Management by Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow, 2009, 246 pages.

Dude. I am TOTALLY famous.

Somehow I made OnlineSchool.net's list of 100 Best Book Blogs for Kids, Teens, and Tweens. Clearly they were smoking something. [slinks away secretly thrilled]

If I Stay: Review Haiku

Unfathomable
loss, sensitively handled.
It will stay with you.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Dutton, 2009, 201 pages.

The Summer I Turned Pretty: Review Haiku

But wait a minute --
I wanted her to end up

with the other one!

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. S&S, 2009, 276 pages.

Ten years ago today, I was doing this.

Happy anniversary, darlin'.

The Chosen One: Review Haiku

Chilling look at what
happens when men become God.
Hide your daughters, folks.

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams. St. Martin's, 2009, 213 pages.

The Guinea Pig Diaries: Review Haiku

We get it, A. J.:

your wife is a saint and you're
a work-in-progress.

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A. J. Jacobs. S&S, 2009, 256 pages.

Lunch Lady: Review Haiku

Love these, but I can't
get Adam Sandler out of
my head. "Sloppy Joes . . . "

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute and Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by Jarret J. Krosoczka. Knopf, 2009, 96 pages (both).

Home Game: Review Haiku

Sort of like labor
stories: most interesting to
the people in them.

Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis. Norton, 2009, 190 pages.

Lost in the Meritocracy: Review Haiku

Midwestern boy goes

East to find -- surprise! -- he's no
F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever by Walter Kirn. Doubleday, 2009, 211 pages.

Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle: Review Haiku

Perfectly captures
the selfishness of pre-teens.
A winning debut.

Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino. Roaring Brook, 2009, 154 pages.

P.S. "Grabowskys." "Grabowskys'." Or if you prefer, "Grabowskies" and "Grabowskies'." Just please, for the love of God, NOT "Grabowsky's."

Life Among the Lutherans: Review Haiku

Warmed-up retellings
from APHC. Just like
leftover hotdish.

Life Among the Lutherans by Garrison Keillor. Augsburg, 2009, 183 pages.

Change-up: Review Haiku

Kept me on the
exercise bike twice as long. Plus,
Aaron Bleeping Boone!

Change-up: Mystery at the World Series. Knopf, 2009, 308 pages.

Wishful Drinking: Review Haiku

Somewhere in here there's
a lightsaber/electroshock
therapy joke.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. S&S, 2008, 163 pages.

P.S. Happy birthday, Boy Scout!